A Drive-In Movie Reaches for the Future

Former Library of Congress employee invests in his slice of Americana

The Family Drive-In movie theater just off Route 11 in Stephens City, Va., is the last drive-in operating in the Shenandoah Valley. The drive-in has operated nonstop for 57 years, holds 434 cars and has two screens.

Related Content

If the drive-in movie theater survives as a viable commercial cinema venue, it will be in large part because of the pluck of people like Jim Kopp, a retired Library of Congress logistics manager who runs the Family Drive-In in Stephens City, Va.

“I always had a passion for drive-in theaters that started as a child,” said Kopp, who bought his first drive-in with his wife, Megan, in Henderson, N.C., on eBay seven years ago.

In 2009, the couple purchased the Family Drive-In, and, after a couple of years going back and forth between Stephens City and the Raleigh Road Outdoor Theater, they sold the Henderson venue in 2011 and concentrated on the Family Drive-In, which is located about an hour and a half from Washington and holds about 400 cars.

The high-water mark for commercial drive-ins in the United States was 4,063, in 1958, according to the United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association. The association’s most recent numbers, as of March 13, put the number at 357.

The industry touts figures showing the worst is behind it, with drive-ins reopening and new construction after decades of decline. But the challenges are still daunting.

“The real threat is the convergence to digital cinema,” said April Wright, a filmmaker and director of “Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the American Drive-In Movie.”

Indoor theaters face steep costs — ranging from $75,000 up — to convert to digital. Drive-ins face extra costs on top of that, because of the need to have special facilities that are safe for digital servers. “I think the industry is going to take a hit,” Wright said.

However, such a conversion will likely help drive-ins in the long run. “The picture is perfect,” she said of digital projection, adding that the threat of residual light that encroaches on drive-in screens is not as much of an issue with digital.

There’s also the maintenance side. “You don’t need the technical skills,” she said, of knowing how to operate equipment that dates back sometimes more than half a century.

That brings the story back to Kopp, who, while technically retired, is investing in the Family Drive-In and hopes to make the transition from his 1940s-era Peerless film projector to digital in the next two months.

He estimates it will cost him about $139,800, and he’s financing the change to stay in business.